Studying abroad: a game of risk in adventure, danger

By By Stephanie Butzer/Special to the Times-News

Published: Friday, January 4, 2013 at 04:38 PM.

MORE STUDENTS are studying abroad now than ever before. In the 2010–11 academic year, almost 274,000 students, traveled to another country to study. With so many students abroad, accidents are prone to happen.

No program can guarantee safety, health, academic credit or financial investment, Buschman said. But with correct preparation, students can carefully examine and respond to issues as they present themselves. Armed with common sense and pre-departure information, students are more prepared to make educated choices.

“What’s happened is that we’ve become better prepared at how to deal with it,” Elon’s Pelton said. “What happens when something bad happens? Well, we’re better at that than we used to be, as a field and profession. We take safety very seriously.”

On a fall evening in London, an American student from Elon University rode the Tube home with the blood of a stranger seeping from her shoes.

Ashley Barnas participated in a London study abroad program through Elon in 2008. Little did she know this experience would test the limits of her safety.

As performers sang on stage at the Urban Music Awards, Barnas moved around the room, taking pictures of the artists and talking to her friends. She was an intern for a company called Invincible Media Group, where her main concentration was to help organize the event. It was a fun, light-hearted night and she was happy to see her work coming together.

Suddenly, chaos erupted.

“All of a sudden you see and hear crashing and wine bottles flying everywhere, bottles smashing on the floor,” Barnas said. “Tables are overturning and chairs flipping over. It was literally from the inside out.”

A man had been stabbed. Barnas and her friends were close to the victim and their shirts and shoes were covered in his blood. They frantically shoved their way to an exit and tried to contact people from her internship for assistance.

Barnas discovered her internship director had fled the scene, abandoning the students to fend for themselves and that the stabbing was the result of a gang-related fight. Faculty allowed her to terminate the internship early and she finished the semester in London.

Barnas was one of the 260,327 students to study abroad for academic credit in the 2008–09 school year, according to Open Doors, a comprehensive resource for international students and U.S. students looking to study abroad.

While most of these students did not face that kind of experience, there have been scattered instances in which students and study abroad program faculty had to face and immediately respond to an emergency, like the earthquake in Japan in 2011 and the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong in 2003.

Universities nationwide have acknowledged the possibility of danger and responded by adjusting their study abroad programs, including adding safety measures, to help students stay out of harm’s way.

The world can become a classroom when students step into foreign countries. Open eyes, an educated mind and street smarts can help them enjoy the experience and exercise safety measures.

EVERY COUNTRY is a new environment. There are different diseases, food, health risks, laws, customs and accepted norms. These differences provide a fresh challenge for students.

“You’re in a new place,” said James Buschman, senior director of the office of global programs at New York University. “You’re a stranger in a strange land. As a result, things that are very basic — things that in your own culture you don’t think twice about — suddenly you really have to relearn.”

While students try to grasp new customs, languages, currency or mannerisms, the world and its people continue daily life. With their eyes on maps or up at street signs, natives can label them as foreign tourists or students, said Woody Pelton, dean of global studies at Elon University.

“I don’t know how they do it, it’s like we have a big U.S.A. on our forehead,” Pelton said. “That distinguishes you.”

Pelton said some citizens approach American students with genuine curiosity. Others ignore them. But some people make a living from taking advantage of outsiders who appear lost and unaware, Pelton said.

“It’s typically pickpocketing,” said Kevin Morrison, assistant dean of global studies at Elon. “It’s not a violent kind of mugging. It’s usually just you go to reach for your wallet to pay for something and it’s not there.”

ELON PRE-DEPARTURE courses have existed for four years. For the past two years, all study abroad programs were required to have a course prior to departure. Before these sessions were mandatory, students still met to discuss the program, but the meetings did not go into as much detail as the current courses. No credit was awarded and the meetings could be as formal or informal as the faculty members thought necessary.

“Historically, orientation has always involved logistical issues: visas, what to pack, when we’re going to leave, how to prepare for it if you need immunizations,” Pelton said. “Now, that course is much more than that.”

The pre-departure courses have been very successful so far, Pelton said. Students can walk confidently into a foreign country with months of preparation behind them.

“Knowing those things in advance lets students properly prepare themselves for those potential problems,” Morrison said. “The more informed you are, the more prepared you are to handle whatever might come your way, the positive and potentially negative.”

Morrison emphasizes to students that risks should be avoided at all costs.

“You don’t walk down a dark street by yourself here at Elon, why would you walk down a dark street in Barcelona?” Morrison said. “If you wouldn’t go out to bar alone here in the U.S., why would you do it in Madrid?”

NEW UPDATES and proposals help university faculty around the nation understand more efficient and foolproof ways to keep students safe, healthy and happy while abroad.

Many schools subscribe to receive email blasts from the Overseas Security Advisory Council or Travel Warnings from the U.S. State Department.

If the State Department issues a Travel Warning, entire study abroad programs can be canceled or re-evaluated. Travel Warnings are only announced when conditions make a country unstable or hazardous for outside travelers.

The OSAC allows schools to stay up to date with the status of each country. As helpful as this is, Pelton said it is faster and more accurate to communicate with host partners.

“It’s one thing to get a newsfeed from CNN but it’s another thing to be right there and look out of the window and say, ‘Well, it doesn’t look as bad to me as it does on CNN,’” Pelton said. “You have to remember that the news medium is a business.”

Sexual assault prevention has become more prevalent because females make up 64.4 percent of the students who studied abroad in 2011 Schools are recognizing this and responding accordingly. For example, the University of Oklahoma’s Women’s Outreach Center Peer Educators created a video explaining how students can avoid any sort of sexual assault.

Some colleges also give students instruction manuals containing step-by-step guidance in case of an emergency. For example, to prepare students for earthquakes in Japan, Earlham College offers handbooks for them to review during the first days of on-site orientation. Their program in Tokyo takes a field trip during the second week of orientation to visit an earthquake simulation and fire safety center in the city.

MORE STUDENTS are studying abroad now than ever before. In the 2010–11 academic year, almost 274,000 students, traveled to another country to study. With so many students abroad, accidents are prone to happen.

No program can guarantee safety, health, academic credit or financial investment, Buschman said. But with correct preparation, students can carefully examine and respond to issues as they present themselves. Armed with common sense and pre-departure information, students are more prepared to make educated choices.

“What’s happened is that we’ve become better prepared at how to deal with it,” Elon’s Pelton said. “What happens when something bad happens? Well, we’re better at that than we used to be, as a field and profession. We take safety very seriously.”